Aviation Week's Neal Awards and the Timothy White Award.
Credit: Aviation Week
Aviation Week’s editors scored a half dozen wins at SIIA Media's 72nd Annual Jesse H. Neal Awards in business-to-business journalism, including the top honor for specialized journalism.
The year’s Grand Neal, the best of the best award, was presented to the entire editorial team for the Sept. 1-14, 2025, edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology. The issue included reports on China’s rapid advances in advanced air mobility, how Airbus’ A320 passed the Boeing 737 as the most produced airliner ever, a report on advances in laser weapons and an appreciation written by actor Tom Hanks after the death of astronaut Jim Lovell, whom he played in the movie “Apollo 13.” The edition also won a Neal in the Best Single Issue of a Tabloid/Newspaper/Magazine category. The award winners were announced at an April 21 event at the Yale Club in New York.
Editor-in-Chief Joe Anselmo with the Best Single Issue of a Tabloid/Newspaper/Magazine Neal Award. Credit: Audra Avizienis/AW&ST
Aviation Week’s team also won Neals for:
Best Commentary (Brand Revenue More Than $7 Million), won by Space and Emerging Technologies Editor Garrett Reim for his “Quantum Leap” column that gives readers a clear, uncompromising lens on forces reshaping their industry. Credit: Bruce Byers
Best Overall Art Direction (Brand Revenue More Than $7 Million) for Aviation Week’s 2025 artistry in photos and data. The award was accepted by Art Director Lisa Caputo and Content Design Specialist Thomas DePierro. Credit: Bruce Byers
The Timothy White Award for editorial courage, shared byPentagon Editor Brian Everstine (left) with journalists from seven other defense publications that jointly gave up their Pentagon press credentials rather than accept censorship rules imposed by defense chief Pete Hegseth. Those rules were recently ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. C.M. “Tony” Plattner (right), an Aviation Week reporter in the 1960s, received a special award recognizing his editorial courage and the inspiration it provides to today’s journalists. Plattner’s in-depth reporting on the Vietnam War and his observation in 1966 that the rapid U.S. military buildup was not changing the balance of the conflict led the Pentagon to retaliate by lowering his status as a U.S. Marine Corps reservist and suspending him from flying. He was also threatened with criminal prosecution. It took him seven years to clear his record. Plattner, now 95, traveled to New York from Arizona to accept the award. Credit: Bruce Byers
Best Technical/Scientific Content (Brand Revenue More Than $7 Million) for an edition in February 2025 that featured articles on the secretive NASA/U.S. Space Force X-37B orbital test vehicle and an inside look at NASA’s lead test facility for rocket engines, space vehicles and electric powertrains as it grappled with large budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. The award was presented to editors Vivienne Machi, Graham Warwick, Robert Wall and Tony Osborne, Content Design Specialist Thomas DePierro and Copy Editors Andrea Copley Smith and Peri Meyers.
Other brands of Aviation Week parent company Informa that won Neal Awards were Battery Technology, K-12 Dive, Restaurant Business, Payments Dive and Packaging Dive.
The Aviation Week team at the Neal Awards: (front row from left) Lisa Caputo, Thomas DePierro, Brian Everstine, C.M. "Tony" Plattner and Content Design Specialist Colin Throm; (back row from left) Managing Editor/Content Production Manager Andrea Hollowell, Joe Anselmo, Director of Editorial Content Production Mike Lavitt, Garrett Reim and Senior Content Producer Audra Avizienis. Credit: Bruce Byers
